Where have you taught your dog to keep his/her head while heeling? I've been discussing head position a lot with training friends lately and trying to think of the pros/cons of head straight vs head curled. I don't know if I'm describing this properly, haha!

Bailey was initially taught to heel with a lure, and I lured her head around in front of my left leg. So when she heels, her head is curled, not in line with her body.

I am teaching Gabby to heel with her head as up and straight as possible. It seems like it'd be easier on her body long term. As of yesterday, she's offering to move her head/nose to the correct position while in heel position. I haven't tried movement yet.

My biggest concern is probably about her tripping, because she'll have very minimal peripheral vision downward.

What have you done? Was it intentional or not? Would you do it differently with a new dog?

I'm interested to see the answers here. I'm training a real heel for the first time with Watson, and this is something I've been thinking about. Really I just want him to be paying attention with his body in the right position, and I don't care about the head. Then I wonder if neglecting to choose a specific head position will make it harder in the long run.

Right now his head is more wrapped around than straight, because that seems more natural for him, but it's not a super stylized wrap or anything. Though I do love the look of the head straight up better when watching other dogs.

It's just a matter of getting the head position you want via luring or targeting while stationary, then maintaining that criteria once you add motion into the mix. Introduce motion via pivots etc before adding forward movement.

It's just a matter of getting the head position you want via luring or targeting while stationary, then maintaining that criteria once you add motion into the mix. Introduce motion via pivots etc before adding forward movement.

Exactly! I'm not worried about getting the correct behavior, I'm just wondering how others choose. I'm just wondering what the pro and con of each would be. For ease of movement and long term health, from the dog's perspective.

His head still turns a little to the side, but it stays much more upright. It just looks... more comfortable for the dog to me, I guess?

It looks pretty typical to me? At least for the "attention heeling" in AKC or AKC-like obedience. Am I missing something? I sort of thought you were talking about training the dog to look up and straight ahead while heeling, the way I've occasionally seen in videos with Mals but that I can't seem to find now.